• AP Poll Week 6: Who Voted for Michigan (and who didn’t)

    Sixth week of the poll from the Associated Press.   A rundown of where Michigan landed after the squeaker against Indiana. This week, comparing where each voter had Michigan and next week’s opponent, Michigan State (via pollspeak.com): Voter Michigan Michigan State Differential Chip Cosby unranked 12 Jon Wilner unranked 24 Scott Wolf unranked 22 Ray Ratto 8 12 -4 Kyle Ringo 9 12 -3 Craig James 10 11 -1 Keith Sargeant 10 16 -6 Kyle Tucker 10 15 -5 Rob Long 10 11 -1 Randy Rosetta 11 14 -3 Greg Archuleta 12 14 -2 Brett McMurphy 13 12 +1 Joe Giglio 13 18 -5 Dave Foster 14 19 -5 Greg Auman 14 16 -2 Mike Hlas 14 12 +2 Adam Zuvanich 15 17 -2 Bill Cole 15 17 -2 Bob Hammond 15 18 -3 John Werner 15 13 +2 Sal Interdonato 15 16 -1 Tom Keegan 15 14 +1 Cecil Hurt 16 19 -3 Jack Bogaczyk 16 18 -2 John Hunt 16 18 -2 John Niyo 16 12 +4 Jon Solomon 16 15 +1 Kirk Herbstreit 16 18 -2 Kyle Veazey 16 15 +1 Steve Conroy 16 10 +6 Bob Asmussen 17 16 +1 Chadd Cripe 17 16 +1 David Jones 17 20 -3 Doug Lesmerises 17 11 +6 Ferd Lewis 17 18 -1 Manny Navarro 17 18 -1 Robert Cessna…

  • This Week in Michigan Football History: Yost, President Coolidge and the 1926 Wolverines

    Here’s the next entry in ‘This Week in Michigan Football History’ to be played tomorrow on WTKA 1050AM’s Key Bank Countdown to Kick-off pregame show before the Indiana game. This time we head way back to October 2, 1926, for the season opener in Fielding H. Yost’s final year as head coach, and the last season the Wolverines would play at Ferry Field.  You get a little history on Yost, on the state affairs on the construction of the new stadium (it was a mess), and on a special trip out east where Yost and the boys met President Calvin Coolidge. The sponsor is Wolverine Beer so here’s where you can find it, or check out the Beer Wench’s Blog.  I’m still waiting to have my first Wolverine beer, perhaps someday soon. You can hear all of the  This Week… clips here.

  • ESPN to air follow-up piece on Mealer on E:60

    (Click the E:60 Elliott box on the right to view the 1 minute clip).  This airs on E:60 this coming Tuesday at 7 p.m. Via ESPN: Michigan’s Elliott Mealer On September 4, Brock Mealer led the Wolverines out of the tunnel for the Michigan home opener. The older brother of offensive lineman Elliott Mealer, Brock walked to the middle of the field with the assistance of two canes and touched the banner to start the 2010 season. In that moment, his family was finally healed. The Mealers were on their way to midnight mass when a 90-year-old driver crashed into their sports utility vehicle three years ago on Christmas Eve. The accident took the lives of Brock and Elliott’s father, David Mealer, and Elliott’s girlfriend, Hollis Richer. Elliott tore his shoulder trying to rescue Brock from the wreckage, but his brother was paralyzed in the accident. Doctors told Brock he had a one percent chance of ever walking again. E:60 first profiled Elliott Mealer on October 6, 2009, after he came back from his shoulder injury and made his college football debut wearing the number 57, in honor of the year his father was born. A year later, the focus is on Elliott’s brother Brock, who spent the last year working out with Michigan’s strength and conditioning coaches trying to…

  • Happy Birthday Big House – October 1, 1927

    From Hail to the Victors 2010: Ohio Wesleyan was the team selected for the first game in Michigan Stadium. This was no random act. Yost started his coaching career at the tiny school back in 1897; coincidentally he faced Michigan that season. Only able to muster ten men for that trip to Ann Arbor, Yost himself was permitted to fill in at left tackle. Somehow Wesleyan managed to hold Michigan scoreless and the game ended in a 0-0 deadlock. We are remarkably fortunate to have someone around town who actually witnessed the first game in the freshly minted stadium. Red Simmons, the inaugural U-M women’s track coach, turned 100 in January 2010 and casually mentioned to me in an unrelated interview that he went to the game with a couple of his high school classmates. I phoned Simmons early this year to talk about the experience. “Three of us came from Redford High School,” Simmons recalled. “We didn’t have tickets but they didn’t have barbed wire over the fence. When we saw that the usher inside was busy doing work, we said ‘Go!’ , and climbed over the fence.” Simmons didn’t know that, according to The Big House, the athletic department offered free admission to Michigan high school students for the game! Once inside, Simmons’s and his pals didn’t have…

  • Injury Report – Indiana

    via Media relations: University of Michigan Football Injury Report vs. Indiana, Oct. 2, 2010 OUT (0% PLAY) Jones, Mike                        Leg Shaw, Michael                   Knee Toussaint, Fitzgerald       Shoulder Van Slyke, Jared               Clavicle Williams, Mike                   Head Woolfolk, Troy                  Ankle QUESTIONABLE (50% PLAY) Ferrara, John                     Hand PROBABLE (75% PLAY) Herron, Brandon              Ankle Johnson, Carvin                Knee Robinson, Denard            Knee

  • The Bashful Dick Kempthorn (1947)

    You’ve gotta love these old candid photos.   Here we have a wire photo of the undefeated 1947 Michigan football, attending a Hollywood movie premier days before their Rose Bowl game against USC: That knock-out broad?  That’s Loretta Young, star of film and television from the 1930s and 1940s.  She’s shaking hands with hard-hitting Michigan fullback/linebacker Dick Kempthorn, whose confidence and skill on the field hadn’t yet translated to his off-the-field interactions with the dames. This photo reminds me of this shot of Tom Harmon with two actresses from 1941: This uncomfortable greeting is about the most adversity the Wolverines faced during their trip to LA, as the Trojans didn’t put up much of a fight in the Rose Bowl.  Michigan smoked Southern Cal 49-0 and prompted the AP to take a then-unprecedented postseason vote to name Fritz Crisler’s crew the national champions. As for Kempthorn, what an amazing guy.    A selection of stories/anecdotes sucked from his extensive Wikipedia entry, on and off the gridiron: What’s a Michigan Man?   The Supreme Court would say you know one when you see one.  Kempthorn is a Michigan Man! Related: 1948 Rose Bowl and the title debate – Notre Dame or Michigan #1? Honorary Captains, Miami OH game – Pete Elliott photo Crisler Describes the Spinner – Fritz Book excerpt, diagrams Rose Bowl Pics…

  • Does Anyone Object to this Marriage?

      bonanzle.com I do.  But seriously, a reader’s plea: I will be at a Wedding on Oct 9th, [ed. that’s HORRIBLE] yes I know this is horrible.  The wedding is in Chicago. Are there any radio stations in Chicago that carry Michigan Football? How about other options….I have an iPhone and could get local stations on AOL radio, but I don’t think they are allowed to broadcast live football in this manner…. I need help!!! Sincerely, Desperately Seeking Brandy. Any suggestions?  The lovely couple & the reader clearly didn’t sync up on my favorite book passage from Nick Hornby’s Fever Pitch: As I get older, the tyranny that football exerts over my life, and therefore over the lives of people around me, is less reasonable and less attractive. Family and friends know, after long years of wearying experience, that the fixture list [schedule] always has the last word in any arrangement; they understand, or at least accept, that christenings or wedding or any gatherings, which in other families would take unquestioned precedence, can only be plotted after consultation. So football is regarded as a given disability that has to be worked around. If I were wheelchair-bound, nobody close to me would organise anything in a top-floor flat, so why would they plan anything for a winter Saturday afternoon? Update:  via…

  • Big House Big Heart Run – October 3rd

      Photo: Maddie LaKind / Michigan Daily Moe’s and Underground Printing have teamed up with The Big House Big Heart Run , they are doing their annual 5K, 10K, and walk this Sunday October 3rd.  Details: The race… …starts and finishes at the University of Michigan’s famous football stadium–The Big House. It is the largest stadium in the country seating over 107,000 spectators. This chip-timed 5K and 10K events start on the corner of Kipke and Green and the run takes you through the University of Michigan’s beautiful campus with a spectacular finish–a run through the Big House tunnel and onto the field. You’ll finish on the 50 yard line and watch yourself on the Big House Big Screen! WALKERS, STROLLERS and WHEELCHAIRS WELCOME! Raise Funds for Your Non Profit! Big House Big Heart offers you TWO ways to raise funds for area non profits. Champions for Charity will donate a portion of your entry to ALS research at The University of Michigan Program for Neurology Research & Discovery, the UM Cardiovascular Center and to C. S. Mott Children’s Hospital and Women’s Hospital!Get a team together for your favorite non profit. Champions for Charity will supply you with a fund-raising kit. You and your team can raise thousands of dollars for the charity of your choice just by getting tax…